Living under a common flight path for traveling witches, this is no laughing matter. I fully think the NTSB should be involved in investigating this, had it happened in the US. It is not uncommon to hear a "thud" of something falling from a drunken witch flying overhead.

Quoting francoflier (Reply 3):How many hours did they have in the involved broomstick type?

Apparently they were flying something called a winnowing basket. Is that even airworthy? I mean, I'm sure it says somewhere in the ICAO regulations that witches are to use only broomsticks for flying, just like the regulations that cover Santa and his reindeer. For their own sake, I hope they were under an experimental type certificate.

Btw, this being a.net, shouldn't we start speculating about the reasons behind the crash by now? What was the tail number? Could fuel starvation be a cause? Overloading?

Oh come on, this is ridiculous. Some people on a.net will do ANYTHING to avoid blaming a broomstick with an obviously flawed design. If it's not fuel, it's witch-error, or somebody's cast a spell on the broom, or the weather was too good. It's clear to me from the extensive research I've done during the last five minutes that all the recent witch-crashes have a common link- the broom.

When will you people WAKE UP and realize these brooms need a complete redesign!!!!!!!

Quoting ALTF4 (Reply 1):It is not uncommon to hear a "thud" of something falling from a drunken witch flying overhead.

Under the regs they are supposed to go 8 hours bottle to throttle. It sounds like these women drank too much potion before flying.

Quoting francoflier (Reply 3):I'd like to point out the hypocrisy of allowing witches to use civilian airspace when they aren't properly licensed and never undergo even simple routine medical checkups.

Don't forget flying without a transponder or two way radio. These women should not have a light sport broom license.

Quoting zckls04 (Reply 6):When will you people WAKE UP and realize these brooms need a complete redesign!!!!!!!

They need to ditch the carbon fiber design and go back to wood. Wood has been proven to be safe for witchflight for a thousand years. Carbon fiber just hasn't been tested enough to be proven safe!
Pat

Look at sweatpants guy. This is a 90 million dollar aircraft, not a Tallahassee strip club

Quoting zckls04 (Reply 6):When will you people WAKE UP and realize these brooms need a complete redesign!!!!!!!

Quoting jetblueguy22 (Reply 7):They need to ditch the carbon fiber design and go back to wood. Wood has been proven to be safe for witchflight for a thousand years. Carbon fiber just hasn't been tested enough to be proven safe!

Yeah, just like you guys to jump to conclusions and blame the airframe before even the preliminary investigation report...
These brooms have accumulated quite a few hours of safe operations elsewhere in the World.

I'm thinking pilot error. Perhaps compounded by lack of familiarity with the Fly By Mind system.

I'll do my own airline. With Blackjack. And hookers. In fact, forget the airline.

Has anyone even stopped to consider the number of cycles those brooms have done? Or where and when were they made? Methinks those were Soviet-built brooms, with hushkits so as to not disturb anyone. Or maybe it was bristle fatigue what brought them down.

Anyway, I can understand why they would fly naked. Paying $25 for luggage (if that's what they paid before boarding) and then finding out that your broom has no storage for it...

Quoting francoflier (Reply 9):Yeah, just like you guys to jump to conclusions and blame the airframe before even the preliminary investigation report...
These brooms have accumulated quite a few hours of safe operations elsewhere in the World.

I'm thinking pilot error. Perhaps compounded by lack of familiarity with the Fly By Mind system.

Why is it always pilot error? This pilot had thousands of hours on handle and knows how to fly her duster. This is a mechanical issue if I've ever seen one.
Pat

Look at sweatpants guy. This is a 90 million dollar aircraft, not a Tallahassee strip club

Quoting einsteinboricua (Reply 10):Anyway, I can understand why they would fly naked. Paying $25 for luggage (if that's what they paid before boarding) and then finding out that your broom has no storage for it...

Have you seen the price of fuel lately? Those older brooms are not as fuel efficient as the newer ones..... They were obviously flying naked in order to cut down on weight in order to maximize fuel efficiency.....

Quoting zckls04 (Reply 6):When will you people WAKE UP and realize these brooms need a complete redesign!!!!!!!

They should go back to a proven design! This is clearly caused by those newfangled computer controlled brooms, taking control away from witches and relying too much on automation will result in accidents....(as proven quite clearly in this case)

Has anyone actually read the article? It clearly states they were using these new winnowing baskets not broomstick.

This is clearly a case of new unproven technology which hasn't been tested thoroughly enough before entering service. IWAO needs to act now and direct the FWA and all equivalent authorities to ground these winnowing baskets until the basket which crash landed has been examined and manufactures can make the necessary modifications. Witches have been safely flying broomsticks for millennia these winnowing baskets are a ticking time bomb waiting to happen.

"There you go ladies and gentleman we're through Mach 1 the speed of sound no bumps no bangs... CONCORDE"

Jeez!! I´ve told Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax to file a flight plan before they go travelling to Ank-Morpork. Hopefully this will teach ´em. But the Harare authorities would be wise to let them go ASAP. Those two can be a handful.